


Cloak and Powers

by Nobody_Inhere



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 09:19:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18914041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nobody_Inhere/pseuds/Nobody_Inhere
Summary: Vigilante Zangetsu finds the person he has been looking for





	Cloak and Powers

Ichigo growled, spit blood from the floor, and moved.

"Stay still!" The captain had shrieked, throwing another humunculus, this one in the shape of a little girl, at him.

Ichigo batted it aside.-The eyes were dead, the skin pale white of death, and it didn't breath. It wasn't human. - and gripped his sword, going after the Captain and dodging another poisonous cloud.

"You little pest." The man said, more poison gas seeping out of his wounds even as they closed. "I will see the streets of Karakura free of you."

"The only pest here is you, Ashizogi Jizo." Ichigo said, rolling away from another humunculus and dispersing the cloud of poison with a swipe of his sword. "You know you can't win against me in a straight fight."

"Pah." The crazed Tinkerer huffed, already bleeding another hummunculi from his right arm. "Last time was just a fluke." The humunculi finished forming and fell down. "But I'll admit, you arer a strong one. I can see why the Gotei has had so much problems dealing with you, Zangetsu" He smirked, his teeth unnaturally bright and straight. "But no matter. I will take you and make you the first of my Puppets. Let's see Ukitake argue against the results."

Ichigo growled. "Like hell, you crazy centipede." He readied his sword, pulling energy around the edge, and launched himself at the mad scientist.

Ichigo's sword clashed against the bone protrusion the Tinkerer was using to block his strikes. "Why are you even here, anyway?" Ichigo asked, following the first stroke with a series of slashes. "I know for fact the Numeros are mobilizing tonight at the docks, shouldn't you be helping them?"

"My time is better spent trying to find ways to enhance my powers than to go after small fry." He said, the injuries Ichigo inflicted stitching up.

Ichigo glared. "You are disgusting. You are supposed to protect the people of Karkura! Do your goddam job!"

The man laughed. "Protecting Karakura? No, child, I'm here to further my science, and the Gotei simply was the quickest way for me to do so." A grim grin spread through his face. "But vigilantes like you. Keep. Interfering!" He said, sending a small humunculi punctuating each word.

"Well someone has to do your job if you- Oof!"

Ichigo crashed down, being pinned by a woman with black hair.

"Fucking finally." The man gritted out. "Nemu, next time hurry up with the ambush."

"Yes, Jizo-sama" Said the woman, making Ichigo still under her.

Golden Jizo's creations couldn't talk. It was a well known fact in the Empowered world, his Creations could barely think, and even then just enough to follow their creator's instructions.

She pulled a syringe and plunged it on his thigh. It felt like a switch had been flicked, one moment his powers were there, the next they weren't.

"What the hell!" he yelled, before the woman stuffed a rag inside his mouth, muting him. He thrashed again, but his movements started to become more sluggish, his arms and legs suddenly feeling several pounds heavier.

"Ah, it seems the poison is already working. Excellent!" The man clapped. "Nemu! Take him and start going back! I'll head to the docks."

"Yes, Jizo-sama." The girl said, hauling Ichigo up like he weighted no more than a couple of pounds, and started to jump away.

Ichigo's head swam, nausea welling up on his stomach, and he focused on throwing up. He doubted this... Construct, would care enough to remove the gag off him if he did. He tried to concentrate on his surroundings, but whatever drug the mafman had given him was wreaking havoc with his head. He could barely concentrate, much less make sense of anything he could see, the streets around him were melting together in mess of neon lights and grey walls.

Then there is a lurch and he's free-falling, before being caught and Ichigo can't help a grunt of pain.

"Ah, sorry about that Zangetsu-san." Said a cheerful voice over him as he was slowly lowered on the floor. "I couldn't afford to slow down too much, or Nemu-san might have caught up with me."

There is a rustle and Ichigo valiantly tried to open his eyes, but the brightness was too much, sent his head spinning, so he decided prudence was the better part of valor and closed his eyes, letting himself lie down.

"Hm?" The man laughed. "My my, what a trusting little vigilante! What if I was some evil villain intent on taking you to my lair?"

Ichigo huffed a laugh at that. "Too weak..." He said with a raw, gravely voice. "Would done it... Already..."

There was a small pause. "True." Soft fabric moved closer, brushing Ichigo's hands and face. "Hm... I apologize Zangetsu-san, I'm going to have to make a small cut. It will just be a moment."

Before Ichigo could do anything, the familiar burn of a cut spread over his left arm, followed immediately by relief.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his arm - Which now was sporting a rather big vertical cut. Blood was pouring out of it, but instead of running down, it ran up, orbiting around a dusty blond man.

"... Benihime." Ichigo said with astonishment.

The man smiled "Ah, I see my reputation still precedes me."

As if Ichigo could ever forget. Benihime was one of the few Captains that had managed to slip the Gotei leash, but unlike Aizen Sosuke, who went on to fund the Noches group of Villains, Urahara Kisuke disappeared. The Gotei had completely lost track of him, and not for lack of trying. The man's face and real name had been plastered all over the town and the neighboring cities, but he had never been found.

Until now.

"There we go." the man said, gesturing. The blood stopped orbiting him and rushed back into Ichigo's body, the cut sealing without leaving a trace. "All done." he stood up.

"Wait!" Ichigo said, scrambling to his feet and almost knocking his mask off. "Please! I-I've been looking for you!"

The man stilled. "Oh?" He asked, looking at him with piercing eyes.

"I- I've been hearing rumors." Ichigo said, fighting to not fidget under his scrutiny. "That you are working against Aizen. And the Gotei. I want-I want to help!"

Urahara shook his head. "No. You are too young, and this is too dangerous. Your best bet is to go with the Gotei."

The energy on the air changed, and Urahara reacted, summoning a shield of blood, but the expected hit never came.

"You and I both know Aizen controls the Gotei."

Urahara spun, finding himself scant inches away from a pair of brandy-colored eyes.

"We do?" he asked, moving a step back, looking at the vigilante, and the first thing that strikes him is that he's young. So young, he can't be more than 20 years old, which is nothing for the Empowered, who have been known to live for centuries at a time.

The second is that he has his mask off, which is an enormous amount of trust to put on someone who is a virtual stranger.

The third is that he looks like a Shiba.

_A very pretty Shiba_ , something inside him notes, but he squashed it without mercy.

It was not the time.

He grinned, but it was more a baring of teeth than any actual smile. "I was an academy student, and you were my hero." He said. "I started digging into what had happened to you, and saw that the desertion of the Vizard unit might not have been as clear cut as it had seemed. And the deeper I dug, one name came up again and again."

"Aizen."

The boy nodded. "I just... I wanted an explanation, I guess, so I went and tried to confront him." He looked down, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck as Urahara winced. "Not my most intelligent act, I know, but I was angry."

He sighed. "And then he went and took my sisters."

"...I'm sorry." Kisuke said after a pause. Now he knew where he'd seen this kid, the newest prodigy of the remnants of the Shiba clan, currently counting three members since the assassination of Masaki and the disappearance of Isshin

"Don't be." Ichigo said, shaking his head. "But that's why I escaped the Academy. He was trying to use them as bargaining chips for me to go work with him, but then he tried to get me assassinated."

"What!?" That caught Kisuke's attention.

"Yeah." Ichigo said, not understanding Urahara's confusion. "He came for me during one of the training patrols, but I was able to get away. I have been on the run since."

"No- that's not what I meant." Urahara said, coming closer. "Aizen already had the perfect leverage for you, didn't he?" Ichigo hesitated, but nodded. "Then why would he try to kill you?"

"I don't know?" Ichigo said. "Maybe he saw me as too much of a threat? My Powers scare people."

Urahara frowned "How so?"

Ichigo shuffled his feet, before deciding there was no point on hiding anything, if he wanted to join this man. "I have a trio of Abilities, instead of one." He said, looking at his feet, and missing the shock that passed over Urahara's face. "The first one is an enhancement ability. I can... I can enhance pretty much any attribute of my body: Mind, speed, strength, durability... But I can't do them all at the same time, the more I do the less i can boost them. The second one is energy manipulation. And the third one is a-a transformation one."

"Can you use all three at the same time?" Urahara asked quietly.

Ichigo nodded.

Urahara closed his eyes, thinking quickly. "I don't think it was Aizen who tried to have you killed, Zangetsu-san. If anything." he opened his eyes again, looking at the kid in front of him calculatingly. "He'd have tried to sweeten the deal."

"Then who, if not him?" Ichigo asked, frustrated.

"I don't know." Urahara said. "But I can promise you we'll find out."

Ichigo snapped his head up, eyes wide, before a smile broke into his face. "Right. Of course!"

Urahara smiled back. "Follow me. I'll take you to our base."

Ichigo did.


End file.
